hackREBIRTH
by Tesserakt
Summary: Sequel to hackOBLIVION. When Edo is deleted from The World, Tsukasa and Subaru have no methods to return to reality, and Helba sets up a daring mission to rescue the mysterious and powerful Wavemaster... in the real world.


[A/N]: Haha! Finally! This is Rebirth! Very very sorry for the delay on this, lazy muse! But it seems learning enough Japanese to understand a bit of .hackSIGN destroyed my writer's block. (not to mention listening to Yuki Kajiura in full surround… -)]

_"If you feel you've loved me in vain,_

_why__ not re-live your guilty love affairs._

_In the warm breeze you will cry,_

_again__ and again,_

_that's__ fate for a criminal"_

**-Cynical World, Yuki Kajiura**

**DELETION**

**I**

A young blonde woman frantically ran into an elevator and slammed her hand onto a button. As the lift prepared to move she pressed the button again and again, as if that would make the machine move faster. When the lift started moving she still pressed the button, if just to have something to do in the excruciating wait. She was going to be too late, too late…

The lift door slowly opened and she squeezed through the opening as soon as it was possible. She dashed down a corridor and into a grey door that led into a non-surprisingly grey room. This room, however seemed to have slightly more _humanity_ about it. A photograph of a cat sat on top of the desk, and beside it a drawing of a white and purple cat-like creature in a wizard's hat. Their frames broke as they crashed into the wall, an angry swipe having sent both images flying. She turned on her computer and nearly smashed her fist into the monitor as the machine loaded agonizingly slowly. When the screen finally displayed an array of icons, she quickly grabbed the mouse to click on one. After another few seconds too long waiting for it to load the screen turned white except for a flashing black bar at the top of the screen, where the commands she inserted would be written. She frantically wrote a word and a series of symbols and numbers, and hit the button to enter the command so violently she nearly broke the keyboard.

_Let me not be too late, _she prayed in her mind, _oh please, let me still have time._

Slowly, too slowly, the command was sent, and she waited for what seemed like hours for a reply to return from the computer. When it did, she wished it had taken a few hours more:

_Access Denied, Deletion in Process_

**II**

Edo reached out to Tsukasa's data with his mind, and again noticed something strange. There was too much data for one character there. The file for the Wavemaster was absolutely massive, and Edo didn't recognize what most of it would be used for. He felt a reluctance to wipe it out. Something told him that it would mean rather more than just the elimination of bytes from a computer. He withdrew his concentration from the data, and looked at the two characters below him. They…

Searing pain shot through his body, as if his blood had turned to white hot fire. He felt as if he was burning from the inside and from the outside at once, the pain was nearly unbearable. He looked at his arm and could see it slowly disintegrating into disperse pixels that disappeared into the air. What was happening to him? Then the pain ceased, and something even worse started. He felt his mind slowly burning away, memory trickling out of his head like a dream right after you've awakened. He slowly forgot about what had happened, about the people he had met, about the things they had said. He felt all of his self slowly slipping into oblivion and frantically tried to retain something, but it was impossible. Soon he had forgotten who he was and what he was trying to do and everything went black as what remained of his data was impeccably deleted.

In a world a shadow's width away from that one, a boy screamed and fell to the floor in the middle of a crowded street, but none of those walking by him could see him. He hadn't wanted them to.

**III**

A blonde woman sat in front of a computer in a disordered room. Swirls and strange designs in brilliant colours were painted on the walls, and books and paper were stacked on every possible surface. It seemed a chaos, but there was an order in it, for those, like her, that could see it. The seemingly random designs on the walls were all created using mathematical formulas, although the stacks of paper seemed haphazard, they were all ordered by specific criteria. Apparent chaos hid perfect logic. She liked that, it was as close as she had to a motto.

She stared at the desktop of her computer, wondering what to do. She really wanted to hack CC Corporation to bits, but caution told her to lay low for a while. Takashi was hot on her heels, as much as she hated to admit it. So she was bored, her favourite pastime stolen from her. She was still thinking about what she could do when a small pleasant bell, not at all like the annoying beep that most computers had, alerted her that she had received an e-mail message. She checked it, curiously, she wasn't expecting any messages, and very few people actually knew her address. She looked at the address of the sender: . CC Corp? This was ever more puzzling. She opened the message and read through it. It turned out to be even stranger than she had imagined. She thought for a long time about it, and then made a decision. She clicked on the button labelled "Create Mail" and started to type.

**IV**

Mimiru and Bear sat on a rooftop in Carmina Gadelica, watching the people bustle about in the streets below.

"Reminds me of Shimokita, in a way," she said.

Bear looked around, slightly puzzled by the spontaneous statement, but then looked down again.

"I suppose so," he said.

"So… what now?" she asked.

He looked at her again for a long moment, and then sighed, shaking his head.

"I don't know," he answered.

Suddenly he heard a small sound, indicating incoming e-mail. He opened it over the graphics of The World, so he could read it. When he finished he stood thinking for a while. Mimiru saw his expression.

"What's the matter, old man?" she asked.

"A message from Helba," he explained, "she asks me to go to Net Slum"

Mimiru looked at him quizzically. "Helba? But Sora said…"

"I know."

She pondered it for a moment, then said, "let's go, then!"

The older man raised an eyebrow slightly. "Let's?"

Mimiru placed her hands on her hips and put on the stubborn expression he knew only too well. "Of course I'm going too! I also want to help Tsukasa!"

"But…" Bear started.

"No buts!" he was interrupted, "let's go! No time to lose!"

Bear sighed in resignation. "Okay, then. Helba Gate is in Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground…"

**V**

Crim thought he nearly felt the air rushing into his face as he jumped towards the gigantic demon, spear first. It was amazing how relaxing simply slashing the living hell out of computerized data could be. His spear went right through the monster's head, and it immediately greyed out and disintegrated. He fell down beside BT and Silver Knight.

"Well, that's one less monster in this dungeon!" he proclaimed.

The others didn't exactly return his enthusiasm. It was obvious they were worried about Tsukasa and Subaru. It wasn't that he wasn't, of course, but he personally held the philosophy of not overly depressing himself over things he could do nothing about. He was just about to comment on this when his thoughts were interrupted by the soft beep of incoming mail. He quickly scanned the sender's address.

"Message from Helba," he said.

BT nodded. "I received one too"

"I received it too," said Silver Knight, "it must be about Lady Subaru!"

The three of them read the message carefully.

"Well, this brings back memories," said BT.

Crim nodded. "Net Slum"

"Well, what are we wasting time for?" said Silver Knight, and they headed off.


End file.
